Sunday, April 29, 2012

April Show

The dry winter and the two-week warm spell in March triggered the early flowering of these plants. I lost a few plants. Mostly irises that were planted in summer but no winter protection at all and a Heuchera planted late last fall. And with the April frosts, some of my lilies and hostas were bitten.

I am new to peonies and obviously the tree peonies bloom before the herbaceous ones. This is another new addition in the garden. It was labeled Paeonia suffruticosa. In front of it is Hosta Fallen Angel. This hosta has grown so big.

Hosta Sagae's leaves are so attractive and huge. The Asiatic lilies are so tall now that the will probably bloom in mid May. I see lots of buds on them already.

Hosta Liberty is one of the hostas in the garden with the nicest leaf color.

The Camassias are growing beautifully and the Trumpet lilies on the right are so tall now and I won't be surprised if they bloom at the same time with the Asiatics.

I have seen a few of this butterfly in the garden. The Alliums are a magnet to these creatures.

This is the Lilac bush that I've spruced up last fall. All of the plantings you see are planted last fall, except for the lilies on the left side of it. Notice the butterfly on one of the Alliums.

On the left is my first blooming iris. It is a standard dwarf and it is called Little Episode.

In the shady part of the garden, the ferns are growing like gangbusters and the Trillium recurvatums are happily growing with them.

In a few days I will be seeing the first TB Iris to bloom.

Here you see a Clematis growing with the shade plants. I don't grow any Clematis at all and I believe the seed is from the neighbor's Sweet Autumn clem that were blown by the wind. I have to find a home for it before it choke the plants around it.

Buds on one of my Regale lilies.

The martagons are growing nicely in the shade garden.

Hyacinthoides 'Dainty Maid'

The tulip show is ending. This is one of the last ones blooming.

Dodecatheon meadia

And lastly, one of my Clivias is blooming. I brought it outside during the warm weather in March. I haven't brought it back inside since then. It braved the cold and several frosts.
Happy gardening.

3 comments:

Lily, everything in your garden is looking fantastic and so much further advanced than it is with us. Your peonies are very early, the tree varieties just don't do well for me, I wouldn't have thought it would be so obvious that they would bloom before the others.